Randall Mann ’s poetry in Complaint in the Garden focuses on beginnings in relationships, as well as pushing boundaries. These topics often intersect in poems with strict forms, such the villanelle and the sonnet. Mann’s talent in combining these forms and themes is apparent with poems like “Yard Sale” and the line-unit palindrome poem “Poem Beginning with a Line by John Ashbery” (48, 3). Throughout his collection, Mann uses contrast, or the juxtaposition of two unlike ideas, to emphasize meaning, such as with rigid form and pushing boundaries or humorous language versus a serious speaker.
One poem, “Complain of the Regular,” does particularly well in contrasting the rigid form of the villanelle and pushing the envelope (8). In this poem, Mann describes how a drag queen’s vocal performance is ruining his favorite song. For example, the drag queen “sashays sluttishly between the throng/of boys and waves a tiny rainbow flag” (8). The playful language, such as in this excerpt, bridges the gap between the strict repetition of the villanelle and the subject of drag queens.
Mann also engages in playful language through his perfect rhyme with surprising and sometimes ridiculous imagery, such as her “carpet shag” and how her entrance “hit a snag.” Similarly to how the drag queen’s “lips are slightly out of synch,” so too is the topic of cross-dressing and the typically-pastoral form of the villanelle. However, the humor of this poem with lines such as “she’s white; her wig is carpet shag” allows Mann to present the off-color topic. The contrast in its presentation as a structured verse adds to the humor and therefore the approachability of the topic.
Mann furthers this contrast with the tone of the more serious speaker, who dislikes the performance. The speaker is first introduced in the title as the regular customer, which is emphasized by the fact that the speaker is able to distinguish the setting as the “designated night of drag.” Throughout this poem, the speaker is also complaining that “the Lady Pearl attempts to sing along” and is “ruining [his] favorite song,” a negative contrast to the light-hearted humor of the rest of the poem.
Additionally, in the last stanza, the speaker mentions that he goes there “Thursday nights, and how [he] longs/to look away, but can’t. An aging fag…ruins [his] favorite song.” Because he goes to the performance, but wishes to look away places the speaker outside the humor as a reluctant viewer—he does not like to see a “fag,” a derogatory term used in regards to queer culture. This suggests, to me at least, that the speaker represents the unwilling viewers of that culture, while the drag queen represents that queer culture.
However, this also demonstrates the speaker’s view of age and imperfection. In this excerpt, Mann writes an aging fag ruins his favorite song. The use of aging and ruins suggests that the singer is too old and imperfect to perform the speaker’s. In effect, Mann uses the playful language of the poem to contrast the seriousness of the topic of queer culture and bring this taboo subject to the forefront.
Mann continues to use contrast throughout his collection to approach the unapproachable and bring taboo tragedies to light. While many of his poems reflect on beginnings and the past, his last poems question the future and contrast an incomplete rebirth with death: “the hidden tree frogs/have begun to chirp again./The peninsula grows dark:/the dead stay dead” (54). This suggests a coming of hope and change with the chirping of the frogs, even while there is still some negativity to expect, according to how the peninsula grows dark.
One poem, “Complain of the Regular,” does particularly well in contrasting the rigid form of the villanelle and pushing the envelope (8). In this poem, Mann describes how a drag queen’s vocal performance is ruining his favorite song. For example, the drag queen “sashays sluttishly between the throng/of boys and waves a tiny rainbow flag” (8). The playful language, such as in this excerpt, bridges the gap between the strict repetition of the villanelle and the subject of drag queens.
Mann also engages in playful language through his perfect rhyme with surprising and sometimes ridiculous imagery, such as her “carpet shag” and how her entrance “hit a snag.” Similarly to how the drag queen’s “lips are slightly out of synch,” so too is the topic of cross-dressing and the typically-pastoral form of the villanelle. However, the humor of this poem with lines such as “she’s white; her wig is carpet shag” allows Mann to present the off-color topic. The contrast in its presentation as a structured verse adds to the humor and therefore the approachability of the topic.
Mann furthers this contrast with the tone of the more serious speaker, who dislikes the performance. The speaker is first introduced in the title as the regular customer, which is emphasized by the fact that the speaker is able to distinguish the setting as the “designated night of drag.” Throughout this poem, the speaker is also complaining that “the Lady Pearl attempts to sing along” and is “ruining [his] favorite song,” a negative contrast to the light-hearted humor of the rest of the poem.
Additionally, in the last stanza, the speaker mentions that he goes there “Thursday nights, and how [he] longs/to look away, but can’t. An aging fag…ruins [his] favorite song.” Because he goes to the performance, but wishes to look away places the speaker outside the humor as a reluctant viewer—he does not like to see a “fag,” a derogatory term used in regards to queer culture. This suggests, to me at least, that the speaker represents the unwilling viewers of that culture, while the drag queen represents that queer culture.
However, this also demonstrates the speaker’s view of age and imperfection. In this excerpt, Mann writes an aging fag ruins his favorite song. The use of aging and ruins suggests that the singer is too old and imperfect to perform the speaker’s. In effect, Mann uses the playful language of the poem to contrast the seriousness of the topic of queer culture and bring this taboo subject to the forefront.
Mann continues to use contrast throughout his collection to approach the unapproachable and bring taboo tragedies to light. While many of his poems reflect on beginnings and the past, his last poems question the future and contrast an incomplete rebirth with death: “the hidden tree frogs/have begun to chirp again./The peninsula grows dark:/the dead stay dead” (54). This suggests a coming of hope and change with the chirping of the frogs, even while there is still some negativity to expect, according to how the peninsula grows dark.